How Digimarc Is Transforming Mobile Apps Into Engagement Tools

Digimarc is harnessing the possibilities of barcodes to increase customer engagement with its platform. Here are 10 examples of innovative barcode use.

Rovio, the creator of the Angry Birds franchise, integrated the Digimarc Discover Mobile SDK into its latest game—”Angry Birds Action!”—to deliver immersive in-theater experiences for fans going to see “The Angry Birds Movie,” released in May. When audience members take out their smartphones and open the “Angry Birds Action!” game during the end credits of the movie, the Digimarc Barcode for audio is instantly discovered, triggering access to a new area of the game and an additional exclusive movie clip.

A visual new book written by Bill Doolittle, “The Kentucky Derby—Derby Fever, Derby Day and the Run for the Roses,” is enhanced by Digimarc, creating an interactive experience for Derby fans. When readers scan the enhanced images found throughout the book, they receive instant access to historic video footage and additional information to relive the greatest moments in The Kentucky Derby’s storied history.

The Portland Trail Blazers became the first major professional sports franchise to improve the fan experience through Digimarc’s technology. The team’s official mobile app’s FanScan feature gives fans the ability to use their mobile devices to scan enhanced print media such as team posters, the BlazerDancers calendar and game programs to deliver a unique mobile experience.

Endeavour Media, a Dutch digital marketing agency, has developed its Cee App (short for chameleon, because of its ability to blend in) to create multimodal experiences. One inventive activation was creating “musical” postage stamps to honor five local Dutch DJs. The stamps were issued to pay tribute to DJs who had a major role in making the Netherlands a leader in electronic dance music. When users held their smartphone loaded with the Cee App up to the stamps, music clips from the DJ’s tracks could be heard, creating an interactive experience.

BMW created the first full-service online car buying site, BMW Retail Online, and partnered with Shazam on a digital, outdoor and print campaign to create buzz about the offering. Using Shazam’s visual recognition technology powered by Digimarc, BMW ran a series of “Shazamable” print ads, allowing customers to scan images of vehicles on their smartphones using the Shazam app that would then link them directly to the scanned vehicle’s BMW Retail Online site. It’s a one-stop shop, with no dealerships or salespeople involved. In 2015, Shazam partnered with Digimarc to integrate Digimarc’s visual recognition technology into theShazam mobile app.

In the digital era, newspapers across the globe have had to adapt to meet the demands of the mobile consumer and not succumb to the “death” of the traditional newspaper. The Turkish daily newspaper, “Haberturk (HT),” used the Digimarc Discover Mobile SDK to develop HT Dokun, a mobile app that lets readers scan images throughout the newspaper enhanced with Digimarc barcodes to access supplementary online content from their mobile devices. The HT app even enables the smartphones to dictate the news to readers, translate the stories into English and share it on social media.

Retailers and brands are looking to Digimarc Barcode as a means to enhance customer engagement. Wegmans, a popular regional supermarket, integrated Digimarc’s SDK into its mobile consumer application and is using the SDK to enable consumers to scan interactive images in its Menu Magazine to access content such as how-to videos and recipes.

Twins2Screens, the “second screen company,” is taking interactivity a step further, using the Digimarc SDK to bring viewers’ favorite shows from their TV to phones and tablets. Twins2Screens created a customized app, Double Action, that integrates exclusively with the hit Telemundo show “Super Series.” By using the customized app on their personal smart devices during the Senora Acero series of the show, viewers gain access to secret files, exclusive photos, videos, trivia and more. The app works in a similar fashion for additional shows of the series, such as the current season of El Senor de los Cielos.

Interaction Mobile, a company based in Spain, used Digimarc’s SDK in the creation of an app for the Spanish version of the popular cooking competition reality show, “MasterChef.” The app delivers immersive mobile and second-screen experiences to fans. As viewers watch the show with the app open, they receive extra content as the program has been embedded with Digimarc Barcode for audio, acting as an embedded signal that is instantly “heard” by the app. All of the extra content the fan receives while watching the program is stored in the app for easy access at any time.

Digimarc’s SDK was easily integrated into the latest version of SPARC, the mobile app developed by Rockfish that gives Walmart suppliers access to inventory information via their smartphones. The Supplier Portal Allowing Retail Coverage (SPARC) smartphone app delivers real-time product inventory data directly to Walmart suppliers, providing an overview of what products are on store shelves and in the back room at any given time. Powered by the SDK, SPARC now enables supplier representatives using a common smartphone camera to more swiftly and efficiently check inventory levels in-aisle with Digimarc’s 1D barcode scanner.